Malloy appoints 'friend of mine' as new legal counsel

Published 5:27 pm, Tuesday, January 15, 2013

HARTFORD -- Gov. Dannel P. Malloy on Tuesday appointed a former Greenwich resident to be his next legal counsel.

Luke Bronin, who worked on Malloy's unsuccessful 2006 gubernatorial campaign, will make $160,000.

Bronin, 33, most recently was deputy assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes at the U.S. Treasury in Washington.

Bronin said he and his young family are looking forward to moving back to Connecticut.

Bronin has experience in international affairs and the insurance industry. He's a former officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve and served a tour in an anti-corruption task force in Afghanistan from 2010 and 2011.

"He's a friend of mine," Malloy said. "And I trust that his counsel will serve me well in the time to come, especially as we continue our efforts to make government leaner and more-efficient while still being responsive to our state residents."

"I have great admiration for the way the governor is remaking state government," Bronin told reporters. "Gov. Malloy has built an administration that tackles hard problems head on with energy, with discipline and with seriousness of purpose."

Bronin will replace Andrew J. McDonald, whose nomination to the state Supreme Court was all but assured on Monday when the Judiciary Committee confirmed him 40-2. The state House and Senate are expected to easily confirm him. Bronin recalled that the first time he met Malloy, was when he was working on McDonald's campaign for state Senate in 2004.

"This is a very personal position," Malloy said. "But one that requires great intelligence and great expertise and great fluency and all of those are possessed by this guy."

The governor said that while neither he nor Bronin have served in the General Assembly, there are many staff members who have familiarity with the lawmaking process.

Bronin grew up in Rye, N.Y., and Greenwich, graduated from Yale and Yale Law School and was a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford, where he met Sara Galvan, whom he later married. She is an associate professor at the UConn Law School and they have two young children.